Violet Gray

Violet Gray is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

Violet has shoulder-length dark hair, and she frequently wears green dresses (switching to pants and jeans in the winter and in later years). Schulz changed her hairstyle between pigtails, a ponytail, and a bun in the early strips, but after a few years she dropped the braids and went exclusively with the ponytail, which became arguably her most famous trademark. Violet also wears front bangs. It became so rare to see her without a ponytail, in fact, that when she showed up without it on the way to school one day, Linus was startled enough to ask why she was wearing her hair down. She yelled that it was because her mother hadn't had time to comb her hair, since she was in such a hurry to go to Linus's house to play pool with his mother. Based on the character of Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, she only wears braids when she is wearing blue jeans.

Her birthday is unofficially celebrated by Peanuts fans on June 17, as Charlie Brown and Pig-Pen attended her birthday party on that date in 1962. This appears to be a retcon; prior to 1962, earlier strips implied that her birthday was January 28 (in the February 22, 1951, strip, she had said her birthday was a month ago, and in the January 29, 1955, strip, Charlie Brown claimed her birthday was "yesterday").

One of the strip's earlier characters dating from 1951, Violet was seen less frequently after other female characters such as Lucy, Sally and Peppermint Patty were introduced and developed in the 1950s and 60s. Post-1960s appearances by Violet are rare, with the character making a final speaking appearance in 1984 (followed by a total of 4 "cameo" appearances as a background character between 1985-1997.)